"The notion of a black slaveholder in antebellum Louisiana strikes us today as an oddity, but in reality it was not that uncommon. In one parish in Louisiana there were eight black planters who owned a total of 297 slaves and in that region of the state in 1830 one out of every four free black families owned slaves. The free black population in Louisiana was rather sizable, but of those who did own slaves, most tended to own only one or two, and these were often members of their own family" See Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia (Volume 1, page 270)